The Ark

The Ark is a tentative title for a PC game I am programming. I hope that, eventually, it will be a game that closely resembles the SNES classic Super Metroid from 1993. However, I am not simply making a cheap Metroid clone, I'm making an entirely different game with an entirely different character, concept, graphics, music, storyline, etc. Its only connection with Super Metroid will be the basic gameplay idea: collect items which further open up your explorable territory.

I've been working on The Ark since March of 2004 when i got tired of working on my previous project. I had many different game ideas I wanted to work on, but I chose this one because it was easiest to work on, although least creative of the bunch. Originally however, I did not set out to make a complete game. I wanted to make a reasonably robust 2D game core (or "engine" if your prefer) that would allow client programmers to easily add new content or even create a whole new game. That is still (to some degree) my goal. To date, i have a lot of work done on the core system, but i am not making much actual game content at this time, so there does not appear to be much progress, although i am always working on it. My true goal however, is to be able to create a very polished cross-platform demo that will impress a future employer, since I'm tired of my current job and am looking to get into programming proffesionaly. There, I said it ;-)

If you want somewhat updated progress on this project, you can check the screenshots section. I do not currently have a running news section like i've had on other sites i've built because news at this point is scant. The screenshots will show you more progress visually, as i'm sure most people are not much interested in resource managers, polygon physics, and game state transition mechanics.

The Story:

You are Lev Aero: United Federations, Military Special Operations officer. On a return from a lone mission under stealth, your shuttle receives a repeated transmission from an vessel of unknown origin, settled on a nearby barren planet in this solor system so featureless it deserves no name. A query to headquarters is answered: The message is unclear, but the nature of it suggests it is an S.O.S. of some kind. Your new mission is to land on the planet and survey the scene, check for survivors, and report back to headquarters.

The huge alien craft belongs to no known race in this region of space. It's architecture is completely foreign. Upon entry into what is evidently a portal into the ship, you are at once seized and knocked out by an unknown being. You awake in a containment cell stripped of your weaponry but left remaining with your life support system. You are about to be "disassembled" by your captors, a horrifying cybernetic lifeform known as The Plague that needs you for organic scrap parts! Your mission parameters have now changed: Escape!

The Background Story:

The story to this game is what you get when you scramble the two movies "Alien" and "Virus". The original storyline has changed about a half a dozen times, but i settled on this because it better fits the gameplay mechanics. I may change it yet again. However, as the story currently goes, the alien craft is called "The Ark". It's actually a vessel that was built by the alien civilization in an attempt to flee a dying solar system and bring the life of it's homeworld with it to a new world. It never made it to the new world and it's creators have perished. At some point, the ship got infected with a lifeform known as "The Plague" which is transmitted electronically and uses infected componants to create a body for itself from inorganic and organic parts together. It captures, kills, and decomposes other lifeforms into componant parts to be recycled into cybernetic lifeforms that outperform any normal lifeform. The Plague is deadly to all species it comes in contact with. The Ark was a goldmine to it's destructive lifecycle, and death to it's creators.

The Ark contains many species from the creator's home world. It is also seperated into different environmental compartments, each containing a unique set of lifeforms. In your exploration of the ship, you will encounter many of them from jungle areas, snowy icescapes, burning infernos, and lots of backwater areas of the ship itself: airducts, catwalks, boiler rooms, the bridge, and even the nuclear core. You will also encounter laboratories and factory areas created by The Plague onboard the ship.

You have walked into a horrifying mess, though. The Plague has taken over most of the The Ark, forced it to land on the barren planet, and continues to engulf the many lifeforms on the ship. The original crew has been destroyed, but the automated security system is still functional in places. The Ark is now a battlefield between the security system and The Plague, with you and countless species of alien lifeforms caught in the middle.

Goals:

You will start the game in your containment cell with nothing but jumping abilities (or so i plan). You will quickly find a way out of the cell and find your light rifle, your handy-dandy, all-purpose weapon of choice, which you'll then use to blast your way around the place. Your ultimate goal is to escape the ship and get home. However, how to get out is not evident and you can't simply blast a hole in the wall and jump out. You'll have to recover the many weapon and suit modifications you originally walked in equiped with in order to reach other parts of the ship.

There may be more than one way out of the ship, but i havent decided on that yet. There could be many ways to play this game: for time/speed, for item collection ratios (most/least), and for route taken to get out. I may also program some sub-goals like scanning and documenting all the native lifeforms on the ship (like in Metroid Prime)